Hello guys! This is not a suitor but another “servant” he is a musician, one of “lysandra’s colleagues” let’s put it that way, he’s more of a side character, but if interested you could ask me for more!
Even for Hesy, Tryphosa or the neutral evil maid, it could help me develop more of them faster!
Well..that said! Enjoy~
Nektarios’ Core Theme
He grew up in a world where he owned nothing:
* not his body
* not his future
* not even his music
The only thing nobody could steal was his composure.
That becomes his identity.
He refuses to let anyone see him panic.
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Philosophy
He believes:
“The moment someone knows what you truly feel…
they own you.”
So he almost never reacts honestly.
He smiles politely.
He laughs when appropriate.
He cries only when alone.
Even pleasure is measured.
Even anger is rehearsed.
His life itself is a performance.
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Why Music?
He has an escape into it.
When he was little, around 6 years, His erastes hasn’t entered his life yet, but he heard an old palace musician playing the lyre.
For the first time…
everything is quiet.
No shouting.
No fear.
Just music.
From that day onward, music becomes almost sacred.
Not because he wants fame.
Because music is the only language that never lied to him.
Humans lie.
Songs don’t.
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His Intelligence
He is frighteningly observant.
He’s the kind of man who notices:
Someone moved a chair three inches.
Someone changed perfume.
Someone’s hands are shaking.
A servant avoided eye contact.
A suitor drank less wine tonight.
He remembers everything.
Not because he’s paranoid.
Because that’s how he survived.
The Mantis Symbolism:
Male mantises approach females knowing they might die.
But they approach anyway.
Nektarios develops the same mentality.
Not only sexually.
In life.
He isn’t fearless.
He’s accepted death.
Which makes him strangely calm.
Someone threatens him?
He doesn’t flinch.
He simply says:
“Bet.”
That calmness unnerves people.
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Relationship with the Suitors:
He doesn’t like them.
He doesn’t hate them.
He studies them.
Every symposium is research.
He learns:
who drinks too much.
who lies.
who becomes violent.
who sings.
who cries.
who misses home.
He could expose every single one of them.
He simply chooses not to.
Because information is worth more than gold for him.
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Hidden Hobby:
Instrument making:
He repairs lyres; Carves wood;Polishes bronze; Strings instruments himself.
It’s incredibly calming.
Patient.
Precise.
One Great Flaw:
He’s too detached.
Someone dies.
Everyone cries.
Nektarios quietly observes.
Not because he lacks empathy.
Because he processed emotions years ago.
Sometimes people mistake him for cruel.
He’s actually exhausted.
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His Greatest Fear:
Being owned again.
He would rather die than belong to someone.
That’s why he never falls deeply in love.
The moment he realizes someone could control him he walks away.
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Relationship with Penelope:
Penelope is perhaps the only person who truly unsettles him.
She doesn’t flirt.
She doesn’t threaten.
She simply sees him.
One day she might tell him:
“You play joyful songs beautifully.”
“…but you’ve never once smiled while playing them.”
Nobody has ever noticed that.
He doesn’t answer.
He simply tunes his lyre.
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Secret:
Nektarios composes.
Constantly.
But he never signs his work.
Some of Ithaca’s most beautiful melodies…
are his.
People think they’re ancient songs.
They aren’t.
He wrote them, Then let the world forget his name.
Because he believes music deserves immortality, not musicians.
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An aesthetic philosophy (“Life itself should become a work of art.”) is surprisingly compatible with ancient Greece. While Oscar Wilde obviously came much later, the Greeks already had concepts like καλός κἀγαθός (kalos kagathos), the harmony between beauty and excellence, and the Dionysian idea that beauty, wine, music, and ecstasy reveal truths that reason alone cannot.
Nektarios could almost be an anachronistic aesthete.
Not because he thinks beauty is good.
Because he thinks beauty is worth pursuing regardless of morality.
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Nektarios’ Philosophy:
Instead of believing:
“Life is beautiful.”
He believes:
“Life is unbearable unless we make it beautiful.”
That’s very different.
War happens; Kings disappear; People betray each other; Children die.
None of it is fair.
So why continue?
Because someone still plays the lyre.
Someone still pours wine.
Someone still laughs.
Someone still paints.
Beauty becomes resistance.
“If the gods wished only for survival, they would never have invented music.”
Or
“A beautiful lie is remembered longer than an ugly truth.”
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Hermes + Dionysus
This combination is honestly genius.
Hermes is:
* travelers
* storytellers
* merchants
* thieves
* musicians (through the invention of the lyre!)
* wit
* language
* boundaries
Hermes is the god who moves between worlds.
Exactly like Nektarios.
He belongs nowhere.
He belongs everywhere.
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Dionysus:
People misunderstand Dionysus.
He isn’t simply wine.
He’s:
* theatre
* masks
* ecstasy
* transformation
* freedom
* madness
* performance
Nektarios literally performs emotions for a living.
He wears emotional masks every day.
He is almost Dionysian by profession.
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The Mantis, Historically:
Mantises have been viewed VERY differently across cultures.
Ancient Greece:
The Greek word for praying mantis is μάντις (mantis).
Do you know what mantis literally means?
Prophet.
Seer.
Diviner.
The insect was named after fortune tellers because of the way it raises its forelegs, almost as if praying or giving an oracle.
Ancient Greeks sometimes believed mantises could:
* indicate the correct road to take
* point travelers in the right direction
* foretell events
Not exactly magic.
More like…
an omen.
Nektarios isn’t prophetic.
He’s so observant that everyone THINKS he’s prophetic.
That’s much scarier.
Example:
He notices:
One suitor sharpening his sword more than usual.
Another servant crying.
The wind changing.
Penelope wearing black.
He quietly says:
“There will be blood tonight.”
Hours later a Massacre.
Everyone thinks
“He cursed us.”
No. He simply noticed.
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People start connecting coincidences.
Examples:
Nektarios says:
“The olives taste bitter this year.”
Three days later,
Someone dies from it.
Now everyone whispers
“He knew.”
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Eventually people begin avoiding him.
Not because he’s cruel.
Because his observations keep becoming true.
Even Better for him, since He starts playing with it.
(Very Hermes’s follower type shit)
Someone asks:
“Will my journey be successful?”
Nektarios shrugs.
“Wear better sandals.”
Weeks later The traveler returns alive because his old sandals would’ve broken.
Now everyone thinks
“He speaks in riddles.”
No, He’s just practical.
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His neutrality:
“History belongs to those who survive long enough to sing about it.”
Warriors preserve kingdoms.
Artists preserve civilizations.
If he dies for one king…
Who will remember the music?
